


Unwavering

by stargatefan_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-06
Updated: 2008-01-06
Packaged: 2018-12-17 17:12:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11856042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargatefan_archivist/pseuds/stargatefan_archivist
Summary: What if 50 years had passed on Earth as well?





	Unwavering

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Yuma, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Stargatefan.com](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Stargatefan.com). To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [StargateFan Archive Collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/StargateFan_Archive_Collection).

Season: 10  
Episode: final televised episode, Unending (you don't have to have seen the ep to read this-check the one paragraph synopsis at the end of this fic)  
Warning: Sadness, character death  
Pairing: None  
Disclaimer: Stargate is owned by all kinds of important folks that don't include me; I'm just borrowing the characters, and will return them; This story, however, is mine, and may not be posted without my consent.  
Author's Note: I wrote this before the episode aired, based on spoilers, and then the scenario didn't fit, but I didn't want to just toss the fic, so I AU'ed it. I haven't seen this episode, and won't watch it, but it was beta'd by someone who has watched the ep. Thanks Tash.  
x-------------x x-------------x x-------------x x-------------x

He never gave up on them, not even with his dying breath.

x-------------x

Oddly enough, it had been Walter who'd delivered the bad news, the news he had feared to hear since the day he'd been promoted and they'd begun regularly traveling off world without him. Jack O'Neill knew his team was strong enough and smart enough and experienced enough to be out there without him. He knew he'd taught them well. But, the worry never went away. It was right there, his first thought, every time the phone rang, every time some aide knocked on his door.

Jack hadn't been able to say goodbye before they'd gone off on this mission. Hell, if he'd been there, he'd have gone with them. He actually had been on his way to Cheyenne Mountain when SG-1 left, arriving too late to wish them bon voyage; delayed by another useless inane meeting with more useless inane politicians for cryin' out loud, when he should have gone with them to meet the Asgaard. After all, he'd been the one who'd made first contact with the little grey guys. He was the one Thor kept calling on for help; the Asgaard had declared him legendary, and named a ship after him. They'd saved his sorry butt, and he and SG-1 had saved theirs.

Many times.

He and the Asgaard, they had history. 

He should have gone with SG-1 to meet them.

He never forgave Henry Hayes, or himself, for that.

x----------x----------x

Arriving at the SGC too late to do anything but watch from the sidelines, Jack stayed at the base. He hung out in Hank's office, the one that used to be his office, Hammond's before that, and had been General West's on Jack's first visit there more than ten years ago. O'Neill caught up on reports as he waited for news. Ostensibly he was there to keep an eye on things until Hank got back; the SGC, after all, couldn't be left rudderless. So he waited. And waited.

Hours passed.

The tap on the door was familiar. The look on the sergeant's face was dour, and Jack's heart skipped a beat. "Walter?"

"Sir, we're receiving refugees from the Odyssey. But SG-1 is not with them."

"*Refugees*?"

Their reports were brief. The crew had been ringed down to a planet with a Stargate while SG-1 and General Landry tried to save the ship.

Attempts to contact the Odyssey failed.

Jack ordered them to keep trying.

x----------x----------x

Twenty-four hours passed, and then thirty-six and then forty-eight, filled with an ominous silence.

It was clear this was going to take a few days, so he would stay. After all, someone had to be in charge of things at the SGC, and anyone in Washington could phone him, or email him, so he wasn't out of touch. He'd sleep in the VIP quarters, that's what they were for-he'd be on call for anyone who might need him, here or in D.C.

A few days turned into a week, two weeks, and then a month, with no evidence of SG-1's fate.

General O'Neill flew back to Washington, talked to the president in person, explained how he couldn't just hand over the SGC to anyone, and that, yes, he could handle both the SGC and Homeworld Security for a few more weeks.

Certainly, they'd be back by then.

x----------x----------x

Jack juggled both jobs.

He wasn't going to give up on them. 

He would be there to greet them, when, not if but *when* they returned, to smile and joke and proclaim how he hadn't been worried for a single solitary minute. After all, they'd gone missing before. This was no time to panic. A few days, a few weeks, it was nothing.

x-------------x x-------------x

A few weeks turned into a few months.

Someone suggested a memorial service should be held, but Jack wouldn't let them. Hank and SG-1 weren't dead.

He called on every alien ally, or anyone who might qualify as even sort of an ally. He sought out the thinning ranks of the Tok'ra and searched high and low for the Asgaard, but apparently they'd been true to their word and were gone. That didn't stop Jack from continuing the hunt. Every ship traveling out to the Pegasus galaxy was ordered to search for a distress beacon, or to listen for a call from a distant galaxy.

Jack barely left the mountain, though to him the place seemed haunted by their absence. Every time he turned down a corridor he expected to see one of them; if not there, then in the cafeteria, the briefing room or the locker room. But there were no candles burning in Teal'c's quarters, no humming doohickies in Carter's lab, no frustrated mutters wafting out of Daniel's office. A deep empty silence pervaded the places where they had spent their time.

Gone, all of them: Daniel, Teal'c Carter, the new guy, that annoying ditzy alien woman who Jack would so have *never* let be on his team, and they took his old friend Hank with them: his friends, his teammates, his brother in arms: all of their smarts, all of their savvy, all of their skills as warriors, all of their knowledge and experience; all of it was gone.

Where had he failed them? What had he forgotten to teach them? What had he not warned them about? What had he missed in the intelligence reports?

He wasn't with them. If they were out there, somewhere, fighting for their lives, as he was sure they were, something deep inside him told him that his place was out there, with them. He should have been with them.

His greatest fear had come true. He'd been left behind.

Still, his confidence was unwavering. Carter would find a way. She'd pull another miracle solution out of her amazing brain. Or Daniel would conjure up some off-the-wall theory out of thin air. Together the two of them, the wonder twins, would create an incredibly brilliant way out of whatever predicament they were in.

Or Teal'c would remember an old ally.

Maybe Hank or even one of the newbies would suggest something useful.

But they'd find a way back.

They would.

He was certain of it.

It's just that waiting was so hard; patience had never been one of his virtues.

x----------x----------x

Months turned into a year, and then two. 

His hair got whiter, the lines on his face were etched ever deeper, the slouch in his once straight shoulders became more pronounced. His knees hurt worse than ever, and his back ached so fiercely some days he could barely stand upright.

But he didn't stop. 

He made them keep looking.

Calling in every marker he was ever owed, trading on every friendship he'd ever formed, expending all the good will his saving the world had ever created, Jack used every bit of stubborn determination to make sure Hank and SG-1 were not forgotten.

A new president took office, one who had never dealt first hand with the Gould or the Replicators, one who didn't believe all this off-world nonsense was worth the high cost. The money and the personnel were urgently needed elsewhere; the SGC was trimmed back to a bare bones operation.

Still, he stayed.

x-------------x

Life and death went on.

Teal'c missed Bra'tak's funeral, and the birth of his first grandchild. Jack stood in his place at the naming ceremony, holding Ryac and Karin's squalling child. He was there again for their second child's ceremony, too.

Hank missed Carolyn's wedding and the arrival of his grandchildren, too.

Carter missed Cassie's graduation from college, and her wedding, Jack being there for both. Carter wasn't there to hold her namesake at the christening of Cassie's daughter, either.

They all missed General Hammond's funeral as well. Jack stood with Tessa and Kayla and grieved for a very special man from Texas.

Major Davis, now General Davis, was named the commander of the downsized SGC until he too, called it a career.

Walter retired; Pierce and Reynolds and Siler, too; Dr. Lee and then even Felger and Coombs called it quits. 

Finally, they forced him to retire, too. He'd long ago passed the mandatory retirement age, still clinging to his hope that one day they'd reappear, Carter explaining what and why in technical language he wouldn't understand; Daniel giving him some longwinded explanation of what had happened and the new cultures they'd met; Teal'c simply bowing, eyebrow raised; and Hank laughing, with the newbies tagging along behind. 

Jack had long ago moved back to Colorado Springs, bought a smaller house with a view of the mountains and a direct phone line to the SGC; at least they hadn't ever denied him that. He could afford to live well on his pension; the Air Force took good care of its retirees, generals especially. And really, he didn't need much. 

Hope kept him going.

He had the knees replaced for the second time. His old bones ached, especially the ones he'd broken over the years, but he persevered.

They would be back. It was only taking them a while longer than expected.

x----------x----------x

He kept calling the White House, and the Pentagon, making sure his team was not forgotten. And they still let him visit the SGC. He ignored the looks they gave him, ignored the whispers, "That's General Jack O'Neill, the original commander of the legendary SG-1."

As the years passed, the number of faces he recognized grew less and less; the admiring stares turned into looks that told him they thought he was a doddering crazy old fool, lost in the past. The whispers were no longer about legends; the words he heard were 'crazy', "senile," "dementia."

But he couldn't quit.

They were out there, somewhere.

x-------------x

He was 103 when his noble heart gave out. 

Cassie was there with him when he slipped away into the death that had been waiting for him since that long ago day when a single gunshot had changed him forever. "It's okay Uncle Jack. You can rest now. I'll keep looking. I'll tell them you never forgot."

He squeezed her hand and let go of life, still believing that someday they would return.

x-------------x x-------------x x-------------x

*****SUMMARY OF THE EPISODE (For those who like me haven't and won't watch):  
General Landry accompanies SG-1 on a mission aboard an Earth ship. They go to meet the Asgaard, who are dying and have decided to leave all their knowledge and technology to the Tau'ri. The Ori are chasing the ship carrying SG-1, and it is about to be blown up. Carter creates some sort of time bubble that prevents the ship from being destroyed, giving her time to try to find a solution.  
Years pass. Daniel and Vala pair off, Hank plants a garden, Cam gets bored and exercises a lot and Carter, when she's not trying to solve their dilemma, takes up playing the cello. Many years pass, 50 actually, before she finds a solution which sends them back in time, undoing the 50 years. None of them remember what happened, except for Teal'c, who had to 'man the ship' and be outside the bubble. Thus, he remains 50 years older. The others return to their current ages, including Landry, who had died aboard the ship.   
In this series finale, Jack O'Neill, by the way, is never once mentioned. Not once. So much for eight years as the leader of SG-1 (and SG-1 as 'family').

 

 

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